There hasn't been much in the press about this sadly, but on Monday the Government has decided to ban a peaceful march called by the Stop the War Coalition. The protest has been called to demand all the troops withdrawn from Iraq immediately. The police have said all protests within one mile of Parliament are now prohibited. This is an affront to democratic rights and totally contradicts Brown's commitment to liberalising protest laws.
I am very disappointed that as a party we seem to have withdrawn support for STWC, not as individuals obviously, but collectively. I would not only like to see a Lib Dem speaking on the platform on Monday but also to see our parliamentarians collectively joining the demonstration, if for no other reason than to show how seriously we as a party take this affront to our civil liberties. I am emailing all those I know and I would hope any of you reading this with contacts with our parliamentary party will urge the same.
Assembly is at Trafalgar Square at 1pm Monday 8th. Please pass this information on to anyone who may be able to make it. But if you can't please at least sign the petition on the STWC website.
4 comments:
I think we all think that the ban is outrageous, and Lib Dem parliamentarians have led or taken part in various protests against it, but STWC are not a non-party "independent" political movement - they are a very leftwing grouping with their own strong agenda who have been no friends to the Lib Dems often in the past.
So yes I, along with Voltaire, support their right to protest, but I do not think that Lib Dems will be supporting their protest very strongly, for good reasons.
I have tended to turn up at some STW events. They are a bit trotty though.
Yes to both of you, a bit trotty because they are allowed to be. We were all happy to be seen there in the beginning why not now? I have been involved from the beginning and will continue to be so, to do anything else is to give the impression of opportunism.
I was on that demo.
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